Journal Title
Title of Journal: Biodivers Conserv
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Abbravation: Biodiversity and Conservation
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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
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Authors: F P D Cotterill Khaled AlRasheid Wilhelm Foissner
Publish Date: 2007/10/27
Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 427-443
Abstract
Protists have scarcely been considered in traditional perspectives and strategies in environmental management and biodiversity conservation This is a remarkable omission given that these tiny organisms are highly diverse and have performed as key ecological players in evolutionary theatres for over a billion years of Earth history Protists hold key roles in nearly all ecosystems notably as participants in fluxes of energy and matter through foodwebs that centre on their predation on microbes In spite of this they have been largely ignored in conservation issues due to a widespread naive belief that protists are ubiquitous and cosmopolitanously distributed Nevertheless recent research shows that many protists have markedly restricted distributions These range from palaeoendemics GondwananLaurasian distribution to local endemics Our ignorance about the ultimate and proximate causes of such acute disparities in scaledependent distributions of protists can be flagged as a singular reason to preserve these more cryptic participants in ecological and evolutionary dynamics This argument is disturbing when one considers anthropogenic modifications of landscapes and the very poorly understood roles of protists in ecological processes in soils not least in agroecolandscapes and hydrological systems Major concerns include host specific symbiotic symphoric and parasitic species which become extinct unseen and largely unknown alongside their metazoan hosts change or loss of habitats massive change or loss of type localities and losses of unique genetic resources and evolutionary potential These concerns are illustrated by examples to argue that conservation of protists should be integral to any strategy that traditionally targets vascular plants and animals The ongoing decline in research capacity to inventory and classify protist diversity exemplifies a most acute symptom of the failures at local national and international levels to support scientific responses to the biodiversity crisis Responsible responses to these severe problems need to centre on the revival of natural history as the core discipline in biologySupported by the Austrian Science Foundation FWF P15017 and P19699B17 and by the King Saud University Saudi Arabia Cotterill gratefully thanks essential support for interdisciplinary research from the Claude Leon Foundation Cape Town and a Biodiversity Leadership Award from the Bay Foundation and the Josephine Bay Paul and C Michael Paul Foundations New York City This is AEON Contribution No 0030 The technical assistance of Mag Gudrun Fuss is gratefully acknowledged
Keywords:
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Other Papers In This Journal:
- Assessing the vulnerability of European butterflies to climate change using multiple criteria
- Wildlife trade, consumption and conservation awareness in southwest China
- Traditional Ecological Knowledge of a Riverine Forest in Turkana, Kenya: Implications for Research and Management
- What do we know about the effect of patch size on primate species across life history traits?
- What do we know about the effect of patch size on primate species across life history traits?
- Rare canopy species in communities within the Atlantic Coastal Forest in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil
- Restoration of beech forest for saproxylic beetles—effects of habitat fragmentation and substrate density on species diversity and distribution
- Dynamics of ungulates in relation to climatic and land use changes in an insularized African savanna ecosystem
- Diversity and abundance of arthropods in subtropical rice growing areas in the Brazilian south
- Diversity and status of carnivorous plants in Uganda: towards identification of sites most critical for their conservation
- Can the Geranium Bronze, Cacyreus marshalli , become a threat for European biodiversity?
- Polylepis woodland remnants as biodiversity islands in the Bolivian high Andes
- Options for biodiversity conservation in managed forest landscapes of multiple ownerships in Oregon and Washington, USA
- Six decades of changes in vascular hydrophyte and fish species in three plateau lakes in Yunnan, China
- Taking shortcuts to measure species diversity: parasitoid Hymenoptera subfamilies as surrogates of species richness
- The price of tolerance: wolf damage payments after recovery
- Evaluating population connectivity for species of conservation concern in the American Great Plains
- A private management approach to coral reef conservation in Sabah, Malaysia
- Plant species richness in ephemeral and perennial reaches of a dryland river
- WebGRMS: Prototype software for web-based mapping of biological collections
- Books on biodiversity and conservation
- Environmental correlates of plant and invertebrate species richness in ponds
- Factors influencing early secondary succession and ecosystem carbon stocks in Brazilian Atlantic Forest
- Factors influencing early secondary succession and ecosystem carbon stocks in Brazilian Atlantic Forest
- A reptilian smoking gun: first record of invasive Jackson’s chameleon ( Chamaeleo jacksonii ) predation on native Hawaiian species
- Species richness, taxonomy and peculiarities of the neotropical rust fungi: are they more diverse in the Neotropics?
- Faunistic similarity and endemism of earthworms in east mediterranean region
- Conserving plant diversity in Europe: outcomes, criticisms and perspectives of the Habitats Directive application in Italy
- On the collective analysis of species: how can Red Lists and lists of regional priorities be combined to assist in decision-making? A reply to Lõhmus (2015)
- Mapping patterns of ferns species richness through the use of herbarium data
- Assessing environment and development outcomes
in conservation landscapes
- An estimate of the lower limit of global fungal diversity
- Recovery of indigenous butterfly community following control of invasive alien plants in a tropical island’s wet forests
- Distribution and abundance of a keystone tree, Schinziophyton rautanenii , and factors affecting its structure in Zambia, southern Africa
- Distribution and abundance of a keystone tree, Schinziophyton rautanenii , and factors affecting its structure in Zambia, southern Africa
- Distribution and abundance of a keystone tree, Schinziophyton rautanenii , and factors affecting its structure in Zambia, southern Africa
- The role of planted forests in the provision of habitat: an Irish perspective
- Attitudes of Norwegian ptarmigan hunters towards hunting goals and harvest regulations: the effects of environmental orientation
- Conspecific and heterospecific attraction in assessments of functional connectivity
- The contribution of common and rare species to plant species richness patterns: the effect of habitat type and size of sampling unit
- Leaf litter ant diversity in Guyana
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